About: immigrants Archives

A summit of the “Visegrad Four” countries – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland – held in Prague on 4 September rejected mandatory quotas for taking refugees, but said the group wanted to contribute to tackling the crisis and protect the Schengen border-free zone.

A Hungarian official indirectly admitted that the poster campaign ordered by the government last summer to discourage immigrants from coming into the country was aimed at generating hate towards them.

The US has expressed its concerns to Russia following reports of a major military build-up in Syria that could increase the exodus of refugees currently overwhelming the EU.

First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans said what everyone suspected on Friday (4 September): that the refugee crisis overwhelming the EU will last a long time, and that “every single European” will feel its consequences.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday (4 September) that the European countries who are backing the US policy to export democracy in their neighbourhood have engineered the current migrant exodus that is submerging the EU.

Would-be migrants hoping to flee war in the Middle East are using Facebook as their compass for finding the smugglers they hope will get them to a better life in Europe.

Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg's Minister of Foreign Affairs, sharply criticised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Thursday (3 September) for saying refugees should not come to Europe, and that Muslims are not welcome in Hungary.

Panagiotis Kouroumplis, Minister for Health and Social Solidarity in Alexis Tsipras' government, has accused EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis of damaging the bloc’s image by ignoring his invitation to visit Greek islands. EURACTIV Greece reports.

Migrants threw themselves onto railway lines and scuffled with helmeted riot police trying to take them to a reception centre in Hungary today (3 September), while the country’s Prime Minister, Victor Orbán, said the crisis was a “German problem”.

A flurry of ideas about how countries could reduce their attractiveness to asylum seekers have been voiced in various European countries, providing a preview of the discussion at the meeting of ministers of foreign affairs to be held in Luxembourg tomorrow (4 September).

Trainloads of migrants arrived in Austria and Germany from Hungary yesterday (31 August) as European Union asylum rules collapsed under the strain of a wave of migration unprecedented in the EU.

Greece's coastguard has rescued about 2,500 migrants and refugees off the country's eastern islands over the past three days, authorities said yesterday (31 August), as the flow of people trying to cross into Europe continued unabated.

Slovakia hopes to forge a common position with three other central European states on tackling the migrant crisis engulfing the continent, which would include rejecting any EU quotas for redistributing refugees, its premier, Robert Fico, said today (31 August).

Austrian authorities toughened controls along the country's eastern borders today (31 August), stopping hundreds of refugees and arresting five traffickers in a clampdown that followed last week's gruesome discovery of 71 dead migrants in a truck.

European Union leaders yesterday (30 August) called for action to defend the "dignity" of migrants ahead of fresh emergency talks, as tensions flared on the bloc's eastern borders over the escalating crisis.

The risk that groups like Islamic State could smuggle militants into Europe under cover of a huge wave of migrants is much smaller than some politicians suggest, according to security specialists with close ties to governments and intelligence agencies.

Hungary is exacerbating the problem of people-smuggling with its plan to build a barrier to restrict the flow of migrants and refugees into the country, the International Organization for Migration said on Friday.

Europe's raging migrant crisis is set to hijack a summit in Vienna of leaders from the Western Balkans region on Thursday (27 August) that will also be attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Global attention has focused on Greece's brush with financial collapse over the past few weeks. But meanwhile, one of the other great crises facing Europe has continued out of the spotlight, with a steady stream of migrants arriving in Athens.

Ships patrolling the Mediterranean have plucked more than 3,700 migrants from overcrowded and unsafe boats in the last two days, Italy's coastguard said on Tuesday (23 June).